This invention relates generally to automobile door hinges and, more specifically, to a quick disconnect hinge for the door.
Hold-open hinges for vehicle doors are well known in the prior art. An example of a torsion bar hold-open hinge is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,729,772 and 3,870,361 issued to Marchione and Krause, respectively. The Marchione hinge includes an outer or door half of a cage type hinge to which an inner or body half is pivotally connected by means of a pintle pin. The outer and inner hinge members are both stamped sheet metal construction, with the outer and inner member each having bolt holes provided therein for reception of bolts for fastening to a door and the vehicle body, respectively. Both members are generally channel shaped. The inner body half includes a flat mounting portion for abuttingly engaging a portion of the vehicle body and upstanding bracket portions for mounting the pintle pin.
Another example of a prior art vehicle hinge is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,675 issued Aug. 6, 1986 to Salazar. The Salazar patent disclosed a leaf spring type of hold-open vehicle door hinge assembly comprising a body plate and a door plate pivotally interconnected through a pintle pin. The Marchione, Krause and Salazar devices disclose conventional two piece vehicle door hinges which require numerous disassembly operations to enable a door to be removed from the vehicle during an assembly line operation thereby allowing the doors to be trimmed away from the body.